Jessica Skinner fell into rugby league coaching when she saw the benefits it would bring to her small community in far-western New South Wales.
Now she's one of very few Indigenous women working at the elite level, having spent time coaching the Newcastle Knights NRLW team and the National Indigenous women's squad, and is currently in the UK as the Jillaroos' assistant coach for the Women's Rugby League World Cup.
Although she's accomplished a lot at a personal level, she has also been a driving force behind change for First Nations people and women in her area.
"I want to show people that it doesn't matter where you come from," she said.
"I come from a small community of 900 people. I live there and I'm able to represent rugby league at a high level.
"I hope that's the visibility that people in the community space see when they look at my journey."
Where it all began
As well as being a coaching pioneer, Skinner is a personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE) teacher and deputy principal (she's just taken 12 months off to focus on coaching), and a mother of two.
Her journey began in her hometown of Trangie — where she grew up and still lives — when she saw a need to get local women involved in sport.
"There's a lot of social issues within my area of the far west, particularly with women, that amplified during the footy season," she said.
Those issues, Skinner says, include an increase in the drinking culture, which sometimes led to things like mental health issues and domestic violence.
Growing up with six brothers, Skinner had been around rugby league most of her life, so between her and a few community members, they started to get others involved too.
"And not just in the canteen or on the gate, but on the field as sports trainers, managers, coaches and players," she said.
Then the opportunity to coach came up, in a roundabout way.
"There was a lot of times when males didn't feel really comfortable having females within that space or coaching them," Skinner said.
"So, I put my hand up and said, you know what, I'll coach them, and show you that can be done and that women belong in this space."
How it's going
At first, Skinner introduced the west and far-western areas to league tag, and then transitioned them to rugby league. That progressed to developing a western women's academy and implementing tackling for women in the 13- to 17-year-old age brackets.
In 2018 Skinner started her professional development after she was picked up by the Jillaroos, and the next year she got her first opportunity at the elite level, as assistant coach of the Prime Minister's XIII.
Last year she was assistant coach to the inaugural Newcastle Knights NRLW team, where she learned a lot about herself.
"That was my first experience in the high-performance space," she said.
"I was able to fine-tune my craft, work with great coaches and learn from them as well."
Skinner is also assistant coach to the Indigenous All Stars, and head coach of both the First Nations Gems and the NRL Indigenous Women's Academy.
Her association with these teams has also improved her confidence.
"Sometimes, as women we can have that impostor syndrome, where we're like, are we good enough? We could do all these great things," Skinner said.
"And I think that, living with a team and going through the grind of an elite space, I've sort of developed a confidence within my ability.
"I'm getting better at believing in my ability to coach at an elite level."
What drives her?
Skinner lists two main factors that have driven her to succeed.
"The massive motivation for me is to have country women and men within the sport," she said.
"For them to know that they can come through the community space and reach the elite level.
"The other [motivation] is about increasing the representation of Indigenous or First Nations players, particularly in the female space, coming through the pathways and into the elite space.
"And along with that bringing First Nations coaches as well."
The dream for the future
Jessica Skinner believes great importance lies within pathways.
In five years, she'd like to see all NRL clubs with an NRLW club, and a good pool of pathways players coming through to sustain the quality of the game.
"That's definitely something that we're aspiring to here at the NRL and within the women's space," she said.
And within coaching …
"I'm probably pushing the boundaries here, but it'd be great to see a female in the NRL coaching space, not necessarily just managing or well-being, which are really important roles as well, but just to be able to see that there's an opportunity and potential to move into that space," she said.
"There's a lot of great female coaches getting around right now that are very capable of doing that."
Home is where the heart is
Despite Skinner's rapid coaching rise, her heart belongs to the far west.
"I have a really strong sense of community service," Skinner said.
"I feel like it's a real privilege to be able to be in spaces with some really quality coaches, but my heart is back at the community level of participation."
Skinner wants to share the knowledge she's gained and give back to the grassroots level.
"With coaching, you're not in it for a really long time sometimes, so I'm just going to try to take it all in while I'm in these spaces and learn, and then share as much as I can when I go home," she said.
"I want to upskill and uplift a lot of other coaches that are coming through the system, and players as well, so they can match the same skill level as the city girls and boys in this game."
This story is part of the ABC Sport series 'Women in Sport Spotlight'. Watch it on iview here.
